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Goodbye Tipping, Hello Living Wage: The Changing Face of Progressive Restaurantshttp://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2015/07/22/goodbye-tipping-hello-living-wage-the-changing-face-of-progressive-restaurants/
http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2015/07/22/goodbye-tipping-hello-living-wage-the-changing-face-of-progressive-restaurants/#commentsWed, 22 Jul 2015 21:50:02 +0000http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/?p=98365A new message appearing at the top of the menu at Camino, a high-end restaurant in Oakland, California, declares the end of an age-old American practice. “No more tips!” it reads. “Our prices now include service so we can pay our employees a living wage.”

The new prices—which have gone up 22 percent, and which now range from $29 to $37—and the restaurant’s corresponding tipping policy went into effect earlier this year, around the time the city’s minimum wage rose 36 percent to $12.25. And the two are related. While the new policy probably won’t put more into pockets of Camino’s decently paid servers, it will do something quietly revolutionary: it will help them offer a living wage to their (traditionally underpaid) cooks, dishwashers, and bussers.

Camino’s husband-and-wife co-owners Russell Moore and Allison Hopelain shared their philosophy on the restaurant’s website: “We have tried to instill a sense of teamwork at Camino—a place where each member of the team—waiters, bartenders, cooks, hosts and dishwashers—is all involved in serving our guests. And yet, we have been paying them as if we are running two separate businesses.” But the new policy changes all that.

A server working on a recent weekend seemed optimistic, although she has the least to lose from the new arrangement. Her new hourly wage is livable, she said, even if it means she never walks away with the occasional motherlode of tips in the high season. “If you’re willing to stick it out through the year, it makes up for the lack of big nights in the high season on slow shifts, during the less-crowded times of year,” she said.

“It means that all employees are paid based on their experience and have
room to grow,” says Hopelain. “We offer any employee who is scheduled for five shifts a week health insurance and we do not cut shifts when we are slow.”

While a handful of cities across the country have plans to raise their minimum wages over the next five years, only a few have put the rubber to the road. Like Oakland and San Francisco, Seattle is taking a tiered approach to raising its minimum wage (i.e., different businesses are required to increase wages at varying rates, depending on their size) with the goal of hitting $15 an hour by 2020. While restaurants are inevitably passing some of these costs on to their customers, many are also taking the opportunity to develop progressive pay models that could begin to level the playing fields between the front and back of the house.

Raising food prices to replace tipping is only one of the approaches Oakland restaurants are taking to survive the wage hike and redistribute the wealth.

At several other restaurants around the city, such as Toast, Boca Nova diners now pay an added 15 to 20 percent service charge. Although it doesn’t make a big difference in the final amount paid, service charges might be an easier pill for some customers to swallow than higher menu prices.

Dr. Michael Lynn, a professor of consumer behavior and marketing at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, says that his research shows that, “people don’t think about the tip as a part of restaurants’ expensiveness.” The same goes for a service charges, he adds. “So voluntary tipping and service charges are roughly the same in terms of perceptions of cost.”

In both cases the goal is to improve living conditions for the lowest paid workers in the chain—while paying their bills and retaining their most valuable employees.

An Industry Rife With Inequality

The American restaurant industry can be seen as a microcosm for the nation as a whole, in that it has long upheld a strong class divide. On the one hand, you have servers, bartenders, and hosts who run the “front of the house” in high-end restaurants. These jobs are often seen as a means to an end, a notorious way to help finance higher education and beginning careers in the arts, or—in some cases—a path to advance to a higher-profile career in the food world.

But for back of the house workers, as well as servers in lower-end establishments and most casual chain restaurants (think: the thousands of Red Lobsters and Olive Gardens around the country), that’s simply not the case. The median hourly wage in the restaurant industry, including tips, is just $10, compared with $18 outside the restaurant industry. And just as they do in our nation at large, gender and race play an important role in this divide.

According to the Restaurant Opportunity Center United, an advocacy group working for restaurant workers around the nation, the median wage among white restaurant workers is almost $4 per hour higher than the median wage among restaurant workers of color, who are most likely to work the lowest-paying positions like cashiers. Similarly, ROC says female restaurant workers “suffer a 21.8 percent gender tax even after experience, education, and English language ability are accounted for.”

According to Saru Jayaraman, director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California at Berkeley and co-director of ROC United, “Seventy percent of tipped workers are women–women who suffer from deep poverty.” In fact, one in six restaurant workers lives below the poverty line. Furthermore, the current approach to paying tipped workers tends to compound these problems. While a handful of states don’t differentiate between the minimum wage for tipped and non-tipped workers, many pay them much less, and the federal minimum has been $2.13 since 1991. (ROC United has been campaigning to do away with tipped minimum wage entirely in recent years.)

Can Fair Wage Pioneers Survive the Jump?

In light of this context, the move away from tipping appears all the more progressive. But the big question is: Will the restaurants working the hardest to level the playing field for their employees be able to survive the shift?

Take Sal Bednarz, owner of Actual Café and Victory Burger, a side-by-side café and casual grass-fed burger joint in Oakland.

“All of our employees are making more than they were, but it’s our kitchen workers who have benefited considerably,” he says. “They’re happy about that—we’re happy about that.”

Bednarz says he raised his prices by 9 percent to account for the wage increase, and after an initial uptick in business, he’s seen what he calls “softness in certain areas of business,” including the café’s counter lunch and breakfast service, which he says are more price sensitive than the table service they offer in the evenings. He hasn’t moved to a service charge because, he says, it just isn’t possible for counter service.

The Actual Café’s location hasn’t helped either. “We’re a block away from the city of Emeryville and a few blocks from Berkeley,” Bednarz. “The fact that our minimum wage went up before those other cities meant that some of our most price-sensitive customers probably went elsewhere for their lattés.” In the long term, he says, he trusts that those cities will follow suit with higher wages, but Bednarz is nervous about the long-term viability of his and other small businesses that run on extremely tight margins.

“I believe that the long-term macro-economic forces at work here will put more money into lots of workers’ pockets and wages will go up everywhere, creating more disposable income for folks. And retail prices will go up as a result of folks paying higher wages. So I’m not sure which will be the stronger force. We may end up paying our workers more, but they’ll have less spending power in the end. It’s too early to tell.”

Footing the Bill

In Seattle, several restaurants are responding to the city’s recent wage increases and getting out ahead of the coming ones, including casual seafood restaurant Ivar’s and the higher-end Sea Creatures chain, which have both gotten rid of tips and brought all their workers up to at least $15 an hour.

The decision, says Sea Creatures co-owner Jeremy Price, came as a result of a combination of the rising city wages, the need to provide health insurance for their workers via the Affordable Care Act, and a philosophy that he describes as “not loving tips in the first place.”

All the Sea Creatures Restaurants now include a 20 percent service charge, added on to the bill. And there is no longer a space on the credit card slip for tips. Price says his customers have been quick to adapt to the change, and some even leave small cash tips when they are especially happy with the service. “We’ve had very few complaints,” he says.

As at Camino and other Bay Area restaurants, Price and his partners have set up a system that maintains server pay of $31 to $40 an hour (including both wages and a percentage of the service charge), and now servers are also eligible for health insurance and a 401K retirement plan.

“We didn’t have a ton of cooks making less than $15, but now they are all making at least that,” says Price, who estimates that, “If you aggregate all the cooks, it’s around a 7 percent increase.”

Price says the company has seen more people sign up for healthcare and 401K plans than expected. The service charge isn’t covering all of that cost, he says, so Price and his co-owners are taking pay cuts.

“Our goal is to attract and retain the best people,” he adds. “So long-term, this is going to be a win for us, and we’re willing to take a pay cut to get there.”

Indeed, ROC’s Jayaraman says the forward-thinking restaurants she’s encountered feel that investing in their workers pays off in the long term. There’s usually less turnover, she says, which saves costs. But that’s not all. “They also see more invested employees interested in protecting their employers’ bottom lines by reducing things like energy costs, and reducing food waste,” she says.

It also has the potential to prompt a deeper sense of commitment to the work in other ways. The goal at Sea Creatures, Price says, “is making service work a little more professional, creating a situation where people can treat it like a career.”

Camino’s Hopewell sees the shift as an opportunity to approach the way her employees work in a whole new way–one that views the restaurant a little more like a single, living organism. “If there is a service issue, we address it as a restaurant concern. It is not just the server who gets a bad tip,” she says.

]]>http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2015/07/22/goodbye-tipping-hello-living-wage-the-changing-face-of-progressive-restaurants/feed/2Like Yelp For Labor Rights: This App Rates How Restaurants Treat Workershttp://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2015/02/12/like-yelp-for-labor-rights-this-app-rates-how-restaurants-treat-workers/
http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2015/02/12/like-yelp-for-labor-rights-this-app-rates-how-restaurants-treat-workers/#commentsThu, 12 Feb 2015 23:01:21 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/?p=93172Customers pick up their orders from a Shake Shack in New York City. It’s one of the restaurants whose labor practices are detailed in the ROC United Diners’ Guide app. Photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Restaurant servers are three times more likely to receive below-poverty-line pay than the rest of the U.S. workforce. Yet in a world where shoppers fret over cage-free eggs and organic vegetables, how many are also asking how much their favorite restaurant pays its staff?

An app from Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, an organization of restaurant workers, employers and customers, aims to encourage diners to ask those kinds of questions about the welfare of industry workers. Think of it as a kind of Yelp for labor rights.

The ROC United Diners’ Guide app lets diners investigate the policies at restaurants in the U.S. When a user enters her location, the app brings up a few local restaurants and shows whether they pay their staffs a living wage and offer a few basic benefits, like paid sick leave. When the user swipes left, the app shows and evaluates the top 100 chain restaurants in the U.S. – so you can see how they stack up.

The app actually rolled out a couple of years ago, but an updated version offers a new twist: crowdsourcing. ROC officials hope this component will quickly help expand the list, which currently offers detailed information for only about 150 restaurants.

If your restaurant of choice isn’t on the list, the app encourages you to talk to a manager about the establishment’s policies. Users can then create an entry for the restaurant and fill out as much as they know about its wages and practices. The information they submit goes to ROC’s staff, who verify the details before adding it to the list of restaurants.

That feature isn’t just about enlisting diners to do ROC’s legwork, says Maria Myotte, the group’s national communications coordinator. Every time diners reach out directly to a restaurant manager, they are demonstrating that these issues are important, she says.

“We want it to be less of an easy ‘here’s what you can use’ list and more of an engagement tool,” Myotte says.

Non-chain restaurants listed on the app appear under a category called “high road.” They are rated on four different criteria.

A screenshot of the app from Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. Photo: Meredith Rizzo/NPR

The first and second criteria are related to wages: The restaurant must pay its non-tipped workers at least $10 an hour. And tipped staff must earn at least $7 an hour to make the list. That’s higher than the federal minimum wage for anyone who earns tips — just $2.13 an hour, a number that hasn’t increased since 1991. (As we’ve reported, some states have higher tip minimum wages.)

Next, the restaurant must give all employees paid sick days. “Working while sick is so commonplace,”says Myotte, because most restaurant workers can’t afford to take a day off without pay.

“We have heard from our workers that they face termination or [that] colleagues have been fired for not showing up” when they are sick, says Myotte.

Paid sick days, Myotte says, should really be a no-brainer. Foodborne illness moves quickly through restaurants. Because so many people touch the food, it’s easy for germs to spread from restaurant staff to customers.

Finally, the restaurant must have a nondiscriminatory program for internal promotion. “A majority of actual living-wage restaurants are in fine dining,” says Myotte, “but they’re dominated by white workers, especially white men.”

She says many restaurants have qualified applicants of color already working inside their doors, but in lower-paying positions like busboys or dishwashers. Those workers, she says, often don’t get considered when management is looking to fill higher-paying, front-of-the-house positions.

“A lot of the servers are hired externally, even though there’s qualified staff right there at the restaurant,” says Myotte. Hiring from within might help decrease the $4 wage gap that ROC United found between white and black restaurant employees when they surveyed more than 4,000 workers.

I opened up the app here in Washington, D.C., to see who’s ethically serving my lunch. Shake Shack appears on the list — but the nearest location, the app tells me, is Grand Central Terminal, in New York City. For the record, the closest one is actually about a 10-minute walk away.

Location snafu aside, according to the ROC app, Shake Shack meets all criteria for a “high road” restaurant except for one: the wages for tipped workers. But this isn’t quite accurate — Shake Shack doesn’t have tipped workers, so how could it be underpaying them?

“It’s a little wonky on the back end to remove that standard,” Myotte admits, but she says that ROC United is working on this technical issue. “What we want to make it do is specify that those restaurants don’t have tipped workers.”

Indeed, very few of the restaurants listed meet all four of the “high road” criteria. But with enough pressure from consumers, ROC United expects restaurants to shape up.

“There’s more than just a few restaurants in cities doing this,” says Myotte.

]]>http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2015/02/12/like-yelp-for-labor-rights-this-app-rates-how-restaurants-treat-workers/feed/0Customers pick up their orders from a Shake Shack in New York City. It’s one of the restaurants whose labor practices are detailed in the ROC United Diners’ Guide app.Customers pick up their orders from a Shake Shack in New York City. It's one of the restaurants whose labor practices are detailed in the ROC United Diners' Guide app. Photo: Andrew Burton/Getty ImagesA screenshot of the app from Restaurant Opportunities Centers United.A screenshot of the app from Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. Photo: Meredith Rizzo/NPRFor The Next Food Drive, Go For The Canned Tuna, Not The Saltineshttp://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2014/11/24/for-the-next-food-drive-go-for-the-canned-tuna-not-the-saltines/
http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2014/11/24/for-the-next-food-drive-go-for-the-canned-tuna-not-the-saltines/#commentsMon, 24 Nov 2014 19:44:09 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/?p=90325John Umland (left) and John Torrens gather donated cans of food in 2011 in Rohnert Park, Calif., for the group Neighbors Organized Against Hunger. Hunger advocates say a lot of nutritionally dense food like canned tuna and beans can be cheaper than processed food. Photo: Kent Porter/ZUMA Press/Corbis

When you donate to a food drive, do you ponder the nutritional labels of the can in your hand? Or do you grab a packet of ramen or a bag of marshmallows from the dark corners of your pantry and hope it hasn’t expired?

Healthfulness isn’t typically a well-intended food donor’s top concern, says hunger advocate Ruth Solari. The ramen and marshmallows, along with a container of Crisco and a few other items, were basically the entire contents of a food box delivered to one of her volunteer’s grandmothers who received food aid, Solari says.

“What would she even make with this?” she notes.

Those sorts of real-life dilemmas led Solari to found SuperFood Drive in 2009. The hunger nonprofit works with food banks and pantries, schools and individuals on food drives that focus on nourishing, nutritionally dense nonperishables. And it offers materials available for free download at SuperFoodDrive.org that groups can use to design their own healthful food drives.

“People think if it’s nonperishable, it must be unhealthy,” says Solari. “Instead of reaching in the back of the pantry for what’s expired or undesired, we’re asking people to really think about health.”

That means lentils, canned tuna or canned salmon, brown rice or kidney beans. With these sorts of pantry staples, she says, “you can have amazingly healthy food as the basis of any meal.”

Though many people may not realize it, eating this way – with a focus on whole, unprocessed or minimally processed foods – can also be a lot cheaper, when you look at the cost per serving, Solari notes. A cost-comparison chart on Superfood’s website shows how swapping in raisins for fruit snacks or rolled oats for instant oatmeal will get you a much better (and healthier) bang for your buck.

Giving food pantry clients this type of price information is key to helping them make better nutritional choices when they’re shopping, too, says Jennifer Gilmore, executive director of Feeding America San Diego, a hunger-relief organization that serves some 480,000 people in San Diego County, Calif. She says 67 percent of families who frequent food banks make their food purchases “based on dollars, instead of anything having to do with nutrition.”

One in 7 Americans visited a food pantry in 2013, according to a national survey conducted by Feeding America.

“These are the elderly, single parents, they’re returning veterans,” notes Solari. “They’re people just like us, our neighbors who hard times have forced to choose between paying for utilities and food.”

Many of these people are also struggling with diet-related diseases like diabetes. So in recent years, hunger-relief groups have been putting an increasing emphasis on healthful eating, says Gilmore, who worked with Solari to revamp her organization’s nutritional policies. That involved changing not only the types of foods that pantries give out to families, Gilmore says, but also educating volunteers and staffers about healthier cooking, so they can pass that knowledge on to the people they serve.

“It’s one thing to distribute brown rice and quinoa and bok choy,” says Gilmore. “It’s a whole other thing to get families to taste it and cook it and eat it at home.” Her group now hands out recipes with food boxes.

The goal, says Solari, is to make healthful eating approachable and “really debunking the idea that it’s an elitist thing.”

“It’s not enough to fill empty stomachs,” she says. “The opposite of being hungry isn’t being full – it’s being healthy.”

Planning to donate to a food drive this holiday season? Here’s SuperFood Drive’s suggested shopping list. It’s also just as efficient to give money to your local bank online.

]]>http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2014/11/24/for-the-next-food-drive-go-for-the-canned-tuna-not-the-saltines/feed/1canned-foodsJohn Umland (left) and John Torrens gather donated cans of food in 2011 in Rohnert Park, Calif., for the group Neighbors Organized Against Hunger. Hunger advocates say a lot of nutritionally dense food like canned tuna and beans can be cheaper than processed food. Photo: Kent Porter/ZUMA Press/CorbisYour Waiter Wants You To Put Down Your Phonehttp://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2014/08/07/your-waiter-wants-you-to-put-down-your-phone/
http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2014/08/07/your-waiter-wants-you-to-put-down-your-phone/#commentsThu, 07 Aug 2014 23:27:03 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/?p=85767Seriously, do you need to send that text right now? Photo: Anna Bryukhanova/iStockphoto

You know how frustrating it is when you can’t catch your waiter’s eye? He may be thinking the same thing about you.

Diners distracted by their phones have become a real pain in the restaurant business, interfering with the flow of transactions and generally slowing things down.

“I would say probably 7 out of 10 people play with their phones throughout their meals,” says Catherine Roberts, general manager of Hogs and Rocks, a ham and oyster bar in San Francisco’s Mission District. “People are definitely on their phones excessively. It does gum things up.”

Last month, a post on Craigslist, nominally by a New York restaurateur, claimed that a comparison of surveillance tapes from a decade ago and today showed that people spent so much time with their phones — texting, taking pictures and complaining about Wi-Fi connections — that the average party took nearly an hour longer to finish its meals and pay the bill.

The post went viral. NPR hasn’t been able to establish its authenticity. And people in the restaurant business say it exaggerates the situation. But they are definitely discussing it.

“IPhone-itis appreciably slows the progression of a meal,” says Michael Whiteman, a restaurant consultant based in Brooklyn. “No one dares behave as if they have nothing urgent in the world outside their dining table, so it’s all cellphones all the time.”

Everything just takes a couple of minutes more, says Roberts — helping customers type in passwords, or taking their pictures, “typically from several different angles.”

Restaurant staffers have different ways of handling these customers.

“If somebody’s on the phone, I don’t go talk to them,” says Rachel Rhodes, who manages Brenda’s, a popular Creole-themed restaurant on the edge of San Francisco’s downtown. “At least give me your order and then do whatever you want.”

Rhodes says that plenty of her customers are able to look up and make eye contact long enough to respond. Most of them genuinely care about the food and the experience they’re having. But the fact that phones are omnipresent makes customers inattentive and slower to keep up their end of transactions.

“There was a guest the other day who sat on her phone so long that her cocktail became warm,” Roberts says. “She literally let it sit for 20 minutes and then demanded she have another one made for her for free.”

Even when customers put their phones down, they often leave them sitting on the table, daring servers to fry their electronics with a misplaced water glass.

When customers get up, they often walk and text, bumping into staff or other patrons (or the occasional wall). It’s also a problem when they first arrive at a restaurant.

“People are staring at the phones much more as they walk in the door,” says Brian Gavin, general manager of Absinthe, an upscale brasserie in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley.

That might just put a smidgen more burden on greeters and servers to reach out to customers.

“I think they need a nice ‘Hello, how are you,’ and then they stop and then they start to address you,” Gavin says.

He says it’s ultimately not that big a deal. Just as people soon got over shouting into their cellphones to show off they had them a dozen years ago, restaurants and their patrons will learn to work around the obsession with tapping at smartphones, and all the Google Glass-type iterations to come, through the polish and practice of interacting.

Business reporter Alison Griswold argued recently in Slate that smartphones aren’t that serious an issue for restaurants, that a minute here or a minute there eaten up snapping pictures is nothing compared with the upside of apps that allow easy payment, or lead customers to the restaurant in the first place.

Even a skeptic like Roberts says that it’s great having a reservation system that texts diners, who may not be visible at the bar or have walked outside, to alert them when their tables are ready.

She recognizes that while smartphones may be annoying, they’re certainly here to stay. And many servers get this, too.

“People are always on their phones, but I wouldn’t say it’s a huge issue for us,” says Kelly Anderson, who waits tables at Hallie’s Diner in Petaluma, Calif., about 35 miles north of San Francisco. “It’s part of how it is today and we just roll with it.”

]]>http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2014/08/07/your-waiter-wants-you-to-put-down-your-phone/feed/1Seriously, do you need to send that text right now?Seriously, do you need to send that text right now? Photo: Anna Bryukhanova/iStockphotoIn Yabbies And Cappuccino, A Culinary Lifeline For Aboriginal Youthhttp://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2014/06/17/in-yabbies-and-cappuccino-a-culinary-lifeline-for-aboriginal-youth/
http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2014/06/17/in-yabbies-and-cappuccino-a-culinary-lifeline-for-aboriginal-youth/#commentsTue, 17 Jun 2014 17:18:53 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/?p=83606Australian celebrity chef and author Kylie Kwong (left) teaches a cooking workshop at Yaama Dhiyaan, a cooking and hospitality school for at-risk aborginal youth. Photo: The Kitchen Sisters

If you teach an aboriginal man (or woman) to make a cappuccino, can you feed his career for a lifetime?

That’s the hope at Yaama Dhiyaan, a cooking and hospitality school for at-risk indigenous young people in Australia.

Students there are learning the skills to be cooks, restaurant and hotel workers, and caterers. The school is also helping to reconnect them to their culture, disrupted when many of their grandparents were kidnapped off the land, forced into missionary schools and denied the right to vote until the 1960s.

Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo is an aboriginal elder who heads the school. She is from the Gamillera tribe and grew up on a reservation about 500 miles from Sydney in New South Wales.

Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo heads Yaama Dhiyaan, the first cooking and hospitality training college for at-risk indigenous young people in Australia. Photo: The Kitchen Sisters

“They asked me to name the school,” says Aunty Beryl, “so I thought I might as well say ‘hello’ in my own Yuwaalaraay language. Yaama means ‘hello’ and Dhiyaan means ‘family.’ So it’s ‘Hello family and friends’ when you come here.”

Among the skills the students learn at Yaama Dhiyaan is how to make cappuccinos and other specialty coffee drinks.

“A lot of aboriginal people wouldn’t go near a cappuccino machine,” she laughs. “Actually, we don’t drink it. We were never brought up with coffee. … We were tea drinkers.”

The school takes about 20 students per session for the eight-week cooking and hospitality course.

“I’ve been cooking all my life. I’m from the bush,” says James Wilden, a 20-year-old student who recently completed the program. “I’ve cooked kangaroo, goanna [a local lizard], yabbies [crustaceans].”

Wilden grew up in a family with 15 brothers and eight sisters. Times got hard. He and most of his brothers have been in and out of jail all their lives. While he was in the school, Wilden was incarcerated in a jail but was allowed to leave to take daily classes at Yaama Dhiyaan.

“When I was younger I made some bad decisions,” Wilden says. “That’s why I’m in this course: to make my life better.”

When James Wilden was a student in Yaama Dhiyaan’s hospitality program, he was incarcerated in jail. He has since found work cooking in restaurants in Australia’s Northern Territory. Photo: The Kitchen Sisters

“Most of the people in our class are aboriginal — boys, girls, mothers, fathers, cousins,” says 20-year-old Molly Meribito. Her family is from the Bundjalung tribe from the border of Queensland and New South Wales. She got pregnant at 16, and since she hasn’t had much to do lately, her family recommended that she go learn with Aunty Beryl.

“We’re lucky if we get 12 to stay” in the program, says Aunty Beryl.

“Sometimes they can’t cope,” says Aunty Beryl. “When you’re ready, you come back. And we’ve had that happen to one of our young lads. He went away for a year, and he came back and he said, ‘Aunty Beryl, I’m ready to be a chef.’ ”

Classified As Unemployable

Australia’s history of racial discrimination against the Aborigines is a long one. And young members of this minority group who have criminal records and previous drug histories, or who got pregnant as teenagers, are not who people usually want to hire.

“Traditionally, the students that we train are classified as unemployable — that’s what the society has labeled them as,” says Dani Hore, who manages the Aboriginal Employment Program that oversees Yaama Dhiyaan.

The Employment Program also offers a carpentry and construction course downstairs from the cooking school. Aunty Beryl’s students prepare lunch each day for themselves and the students studying to be electricians, carpenters and plumbers.

“So many young people don’t even have a home to live in,” Hore says. “One student, who we actually got employment for, was living in a tree. He had nowhere to live, and the tree was safe because it was up off the ground.”

Bush Tucker

Just as many chefs and traditional cooks in Australia are interested in integrating traditional foods into modern-day cooking, the students are learning to prepare and eat Chinese stir-fry, French baguettes, Italian pasta.

The through line is cooking fresh, local and seasonal whenever possible. That, for Aunty Beryl, leads to bush tucker.

“Bush tucker is what we got off the land, and that is why we are introducing it again, connecting students to their culture through food,” says Aunty Beryl.

“You have your seafood like barramundi,” she adds. “It’s got a real bushy sort of flavor. It’s got that woody, tart flavor. Wrap it in gum leaves and throw it on an open fire. Then it will cook in its own oils.”

Another favorite of Aunty Beryl is the finger lime. “I call it the aboriginal caviar,” she says. “When you split it and open it up, it’s got little lime modules inside that look like caviar. They are really great on fresh oysters.”

You Can’t Eat Your Totem

The students are also learning to make emu prosciutto. But Aunty Beryl doesn’t eat the ostrichlike bird that some say tastes like steak.

“My totem is an emu, so I don’t eat it,” she says. “It’s an animal that we worship.” A totem is a being, an animal or plant, that serves as a sacred symbol to an aboriginal clan or tribe. A totem connects people, ancestors and mythic past.

The logo of Yaama Dhiyaan Hospitality Training Center in Sydney features an emu, the totem of Aunty Beryl, the aboriginal elder who heads the program. Among the indigenous tribes of Australia, it is forbidden to eat your totem. Photo: The Kitchen Sisters

Ricardo Golding’s totem is a turtle. He has come to Yaama Dhiyaan just out of high school. “I had nothing to do,” says the 17-year-old. “I’m not that smart, but I’m doing my work. I used to get picked on a lot at school, because of the sound of my voice. The way I act. I was very afraid to go into class. I missed out on a lot of lessons. Here, the cooking is the part I like the most.”

The history of the treatment of native cultures in Australia is a dark one. Whole generations of children were taken away from their parents, forced into missionary schools, native language forbidden, traditional foods taken away, whole clans forced off their own lands and onto reservations, cultures denied the right to vote until the 1960s.

Jamie Rayburch works with Aunty Beryl, helping out with the hospitality and training program. “My grandfather was part of the ‘Stolen Generation.’ He was stolen away when he was 5 years old and put into a cattle ranch and then into an all-boys orphanage. He never knew his parents. My grandmother’s the same.”

“I’m 24 years old,” says Jamie, “and I’m still trying to understand what that’s all about and how that affected my family, my culture, myself. I think that this generation — the Stolen Generation — has kind of almost been forgotten, where our culture came from, where the food derives from as well.”

Dani Hore from the Employment Program says the aboriginal teachers and mentors at Yaama Dhiyaan are providing important role models for the youth.

“Once these young people come to Yaama Dhiyaan,” says Dani, “they know that they are in a caring, loving environment where they are going to be taught vocational skills. But they are also going to be taught about self-respect and self-esteem and life skills that a parent would normally teach about punctuality, cleanliness, how to talk to people, how to eat together. It’s a very short period of time, but it’s quite transformational.”

‘It’s James’ Journey Now’

Along with learning to make lemon myrtle rose tarts, the perfect long black coffee and emu prosciutto, and how to card people and look for fake IDs to make sure people walking into a bar are old enough to drink — all skills required in Australia’s hospitality and cooking industry — Yaama Dhiyaan is providing a vision for a future, and a sense of community.

James Wilden is preparing to graduate from his program in the next few weeks.

“I just love cooking,” James says. “I love the smell. When I get out and get out of trouble, I want to be a chef.”

James is eager to start his work, but he tears up at the thought of leaving the deep community of this Australian hidden kitchen.

Before he gets too broken up, Aunty Beryl speaks for her school. “We’re looking at James going up into the Northern Territory and becoming an apprentice chef up there. I know James will be a success because his heart is in it. At the end of the day, it’s James’ journey now, once he leaves here. But, we’re only a phone call away, because that’s what Yaama’s all about that. We’re always going to be there as part of his journey.”

More From The Kitchen Sisters

The The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, are Peabody Award-winning independent producers who create radio and multimedia stories for NPR and public broadcast. Their Hidden Kitchen series travels the world, chronicling little-known kitchen rituals and traditions that explore how communities come together through food — from modern-day Sicily to medieval England, the Australian Outback to the desert oasis of California.

]]>http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2014/06/17/in-yabbies-and-cappuccino-a-culinary-lifeline-for-aboriginal-youth/feed/0Australia has a long, dark history of racial discrimination against the Aborigines. A cooking and hospitality program tries to help youth discover their culture and build confidence and competence.Australia has a long, dark history of racial discrimination against the Aborigines. A cooking and hospitality program tries to help youth discover their culture and build confidence and competence.Bay Area BitesnoAustralian celebrity chef and author Kylie Kwong (left) teaches a cooking workshop at Yaama Dhiyaan, a cooking and hospitality school for at-risk aborginal youth.Australian celebrity chef and author Kylie Kwong (left) teaches a cooking workshop at Yaama Dhiyaan, a cooking and hospitality school for at-risk aborginal youth. Photo: The Kitchen SistersAunty Beryl Van-Oploo heads Yaama Dhiyaan, the first cooking and hospitality training college for at-risk indigenous young people in Australia.Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo heads Yaama Dhiyaan, the first cooking and hospitality training college for at-risk indigenous young people in Australia. Photo: The Kitchen SistersWhen James Wilden was a student in Yaama Dhiyaan’s hospitality program, he was incarcerated in jail. He has since found work cooking in restaurants in Australia’s Northern Territory.When James Wilden was a student in Yaama Dhiyaan's hospitality program, he was incarcerated in jail. He has since found work cooking in restaurants in Australia's Northern Territory. Photo: The Kitchen SistersThe logo of Yaama Dhiyaan Hospitality Training Center in Sydney features an emu, the totem of Aunty Beryl, the aboriginal elder who heads the program. Among the indigenous tribes of Australia, it is forbidden to eat your totem.The logo of Yaama Dhiyaan Hospitality Training Center in Sydney features an emu, the totem of Aunty Beryl, the aboriginal elder who heads the program. Among the indigenous tribes of Australia, it is forbidden to eat your totem. Photo: The Kitchen SistersAfter 23 Years, Your Waiter Is Ready For A Raisehttp://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2014/02/11/after-23-years-your-waiter-is-ready-for-a-raise/
http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2014/02/11/after-23-years-your-waiter-is-ready-for-a-raise/#commentsWed, 12 Feb 2014 02:44:24 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/?p=78042A Denny’s waitress delivers breakfast to customers in Emeryville, Calif. The tipped minimum wage has been stuck at $2.13 since 1991. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

When Woody Harrelson’s character got hired as a bartender on Cheers, he was so excited, he insisted on working for no more than the minimum wage. “I’d work like a slave,” he said, “and, of course, I’d wash your car.”

Most bar and restaurant workers would prefer to bring home a little more cash. They may be in luck.

As part of his plan to raise the minimum wage, President Obama has called for substantially increasing the base wage paid to tipped workers for the first time in decades.

The Democratic bill endorsed by Obama in his State of the Union address last monthwould raise the overall minimum wage in stages, from the current $7.25 to $10.10 an hour. Tipped workers — a group that includes waiters, bartenders and busboys — would see their base wages rise to $7.07 an hour.

That bill, like all legislation in Congress these days, faces an uncertain future. And its fiercest opposition comes from the National Restaurant Association.

For starters, the NRA argues, most tipped workers make more than the federal minimum of $2.13 an hour. And it’s true: Thirty-one states mandate higher minimum tipped wages than the feds — though those mandates vary widely. In Arkansas, for example, the minimum is $2.63, while in Washington and Oregon it’s more than $9.

Even in states that haven’t raised the tipped minimum, restaurants are required to make up any shortfall between $2.13 and the regular minimum wage that isn’t covered by tips.

“Tipped employees at restaurants are among the highest-paid employees in the establishment, regularly earning $16 to $22 an hour,” says Scott DeFife, executive vice president for policy and government affairs at the NRA. “Nobody is making $2.13 an hour,” he adds.

But labor advocates take issue with the NRA’s numbers. In 2012, the median income for food and beverage serving workers was $8.84 per hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The bulk of tipped workers are barely making ends meet, advocates say.

States Where Servers Have The Highest Base Wages

Notes
Nevada’s tipped minimum wage is $7.25 for workers who have employer-provided health insurance. It is $8.25 for those without such a benefit.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor
Credit: NPR

“Seventy percent are women who work at places like IHOP and Red Lobster,” says Saru Jayaraman, co-director of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, which is pushing for higher wages. “They use food stamps at double the rate of the rest of the workforce.”

In seven states, mostly in the West, restaurants have to pay their workers the prevailing minimum wage, which is a good deal more than $2.13. Similar requirements are pending in the Pennsylvania and Florida legislatures, while voters will weigh in on the issue through ballot measures in a handful of other states and cities this year.

DeFife warns that increasing the base salary of servers and other tipped workers will lead to less hiring, as well as possible tensions in-house. With waiters making more in base salary on top of tips, the nontipped folks in the kitchen might feel shortchanged.

“We already have a disparity between the front of the house and the back of the house,” DeFife says. “For proper restaurant operations, you want to keep as good a balance as you can. You don’t want to increase the disparity.”

But even if wages do go up, labor proponent Traub argues that employers won’t pass on all the costs to their customers.

“Studies have found that when you pay higher wages, employees are more productive and turnover drops,” she says, “so you have people who are more experienced and can do a better job.”

Of course, the restaurant industry, the leading employer of minimum-wage workers, always warns about the perils of raising their salaries.

The NRA’s own projections show that restaurant sales are expected to grow this year at a rate exceeding the national average in at least some of the states with higher base wages, including California, Oregon and Nevada. And overall restaurant hiring hasn’t been driven down in the Western states that require higher minimum wages (although DeFife says there are complaints from restaurateurs in Oregon and Washington that they’ve had to cut back).

Still, it stands to reason that restaurants will have to pass on some of these higher costs to customers. Opponents of a wage hike argue this will make diners more cautious about eating out.

“The winners are probably going to be the people who get the higher wage, and the losers will be customers who have to pay higher prices and workers who don’t get hired by that industry,” says Michael Strain, a labor economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

In San Francisco, servers receive one of the highest minimum wages in the country — $10.55 an hour. That’s a considerable expense for restaurants that also have to cope with sky-high rents, as well as a local universal health care mandate that leads to surcharges generally of 2 percent on most restaurant bills.

“It’s very, very expensive to run any sort of restaurant in San Francisco,” says Patricia Unterman, a longtime restaurateur and food critic in the city. “The cost of doing business here, especially for labor-intensive operations like restaurants, almost doesn’t pencil out.”

But, she notes, amid the city’s thriving, tech-driven economy, people are willing to pay high tabs. San Francisco’s restaurant scene is thriving. And, Unterman says, restaurants skimp where they have to, cutting back on niceties like tablecloths and bread and butter, sometimes only serving water when asked.

Consumers can be sensitive to price changes, but even in places whose residents aren’t as flush as those in San Francisco, a slight rise in their tab isn’t likely to deter diners who value the experience or convenience of eating out. A study by University of California researchers suggests any increase in cost passed on to the diner is likely to be marginal at most.

In general, when people eat out — especially at a place where they’re waited on by servers — they know they’re generally going to pay more for the meal than they would if they had cooked at home.

Even DeFife concedes that an increase in servers’ base pay might not do too much harm, depending on how large it is and how fast it would be implemented.

“We don’t talk about job loss too much in the restaurant industry, per se,” he says. “The restaurant industry continues to grow.”

60,000 pounds of fresh fruit, 2,200 pounds of assorted cheeses, 14,000 pounds of potatoes, 10,000 pounds of whole chicken: the numbers for feeding guests on a Celebrity Millennium cruise ship are bigger than any catering gig I’ve tackled and definitely interesting from an operational standpoint. For this type of dining, sauces and dressings are all made in-house: my onboard kitchen tour confirmed this and I was surprised at how fresh things tasted. Cruise ships are floating cities, with constant food and entertainment options—for wine, there are those self-serve by-the-ounce kiosks open 24 hours a day. Vodka is the most popular spirit. Cocktail options beyond martinis range from Moscow Mule to passion fruit and pear drinks. The food displays reminded me of cooking school and catering, where I quickly learned how much time and care it takes to make a fruit sculpture, an ice carving or a delectable looking house made out of three kinds of bread.

The Celebrity Millennium in Alaska. Photo courtesy of Celebrity Cruises

I was excited to see the natural sites via a recent cruise to Alaska, and appreciated the idea of not having to plan, cook or clean for anyone. Eating (and drinking) onboard a floating city is fun, comfortable, and even exciting–there’s a reason Celebrity was featured on Top Chef for exactly this sort of modern and tasty fare (of course, the TV arrangement likely took some brand negotiating). One trend at Qsine, one of the many restaurants onboard, included appetizers served in a standing drawer–really the coolest presentation I’ve seen in a long time. I interviewed Chef Steve van der Merwe, Corporate Chef at Celebrity Cruises to find out more about cooking on a cruise ship. His comments have been edited for length.

Chef Steve van der Merwe. Photo courtesy of Celebrity Cruises

Bay Area Bites: What is it like to cook on a cruise ship? van der Merwe: It presents its own unique challenges. Guest demographics change every cruise. Or the ship may experience heavy seas, making it rather interesting in the galleys. Safety is of utmost importance at all times. We use specialized cooking equipment that can withstand the ship’s rolling-and-rocking motion.

Bay Area Bites: How many kitchens are on board?van der Merwe: Celebrity Millennium has a total of eight galleys and a double occupancy of 2,158 guests. The ship serves over 10,500 meals per day, including the crew of around 950.

Bay Area Bites: Intricate ice sculptures, elaborate bread houses, dynamic brunch buffet displays: all part of the dining experience aboard Celebrity Cruise. What sort of planning and details go into that?van der Merwe: The Executive Chef will plan themed brunches reflecting the time of year. A Christmas brunch features Santa Claus with his reindeer carved in ice. Gingerbread houses are customized, too. Ports-of-call influence the offerings and if a ship is docked in the Mediterranean, we source the best quality, fresh mozzarella cheese and olive oil. At the various ports, guests can indulge in a taste of the local culture.

Bay Area Bites: What size ice blocks are used for ice sculptures?van der Merwe: The ice blocks come in 350-pound slabs. Carving an ice block can take up to 90 minutes. The most time-consuming part is allowing the ice block to “soften” a little for around two hours in a temp-controlled environment.

Bay Area Bites: What was it like to move up the ranks?van der Merwe: Challenging. I had a lot of cooks in the galley around the same young age as me. Competition was tough. However, we all met for beer and talked about the evening’s service after work.

It always was a little daunting being moved to a new section. On ships, there is very little time for training, so you would be told ahead of time that you would be moving sections and you had to balance your section, while learning and training for the next one. We all find ourselves “in the weeds” sometimes.

Bay Area Bites: What are the daily food numbers like?van der Merwe: If we have a hot day at sea, our fresh salads and fruit consumption spike. If it’s cold and rainy, guests gravitate to heavier, hot meals.

On a seven-night cruise Celebrity Millennium will use:

2,200 dozen eggs

500 gallons of whole milk

3,200 individual whole milks

60,000 pounds of fresh fruit

2,200 pounds of assorted cheeses

14,000 pounds of potatoes

10,000 pounds of whole chicken

Bay Area Bites: How does the 24-hour bakery production unfold?van der Merwe: We produce all our own pastries and bread. There are seven bakers; four bakers work the day shift and three at night. There are an additional 16 cooks in the pastry section as well, and two cooks for the night shift. The pastry team produces a lot of the cake sponges and other items needed for the next day. There is one cook solely dedicated to making ice cream and one who makes gelato on board.

Bay Area Bites: What is a funny memory from cooking on board?van der Merwe: When I worked in the production galley, there were three Chef De Parties and a 2nd Cook. The guy in charge of the cold pantries for the entire ship was making pie pastry. He measured his flour and added butter and then walked away to get some salt. The mixer was still off and switched to the lowest setting (no. 1). I walked past the mixer and switched the setting to the highest (no. 4). When the poor guy returned he hit the “on” button without checking the setting. As a result, the paddle blitzed the cold butter and flour into the biggest flour cloud you have ever seen in your life. We all laughed uncontrollably. He was less than impressed by the fact that he was covered from head to toe in flour.

]]>http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2014/01/06/a-floating-city-cooking-on-a-celebrity-cruise-ship/feed/0buffet-cruiseship1000Brunch dessert buffet with ice sculpture. Photo by Mary Laddcruiseship1000The Celebrity Millennium in Alaska. Photo courtesy of Celebrity CruisesQsine’s standing drawer as featured on Top Chef. Photo courtesy of Celebrity CruisesQsine’s standing drawer as featured on Top ChefWine by the ounce, available 24 hours a day. Photo courtesy of Celebrity CruisesWine by the ounce, available 24 hours a daychefsteve700Chef Steve van der Merwe. Photo courtesy of Celebrity CruisesDon’t Poison the Guests: Advice on Food Allergies, Intolerances and Sensitivitieshttp://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2013/12/26/dont-poison-the-guests-advice-on-food-allergies-intolerances-and-sensitivities/
http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2013/12/26/dont-poison-the-guests-advice-on-food-allergies-intolerances-and-sensitivities/#commentsThu, 26 Dec 2013 19:44:16 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/?p=75736New challenge for hosts: pull off a delicious dinner without knocking off your guests. Illustration: Lila Volkas

As her friend spooned a ladle of steaming, scalloped potatoes onto Tara’s plate, he murmured, “Oh, I always put a bit of flour in the sauce, I’m sure a little won’t hurt you.”

“Yeah, right,” replied Tara, who has celiac disease and had provided her host with a complete rundown of her extreme intolerance to gluten, “if you want me to end this evening in an ambulance!”

Modern menus have turned into minefields, as it seems that everyone and their little brother asserts their sensitivity to something: nuts, wheat, dairy, soy, eggs, fish–even cilantro. Suddenly, it’s puzzling or even perilous to invite people over for a simple meal. What’s the difference between a trendy, personal preference and a life-threatening condition and what can we serve that all our guests will enjoy without a trip to the ER?

When I cook for friends, I always inquire about their dietary restrictions, because I have a collection of my own: bell peppers make me burp, and dairy, wheat, and soy cause painful bloating. But luckily, my food intolerances are not the same as allergies and thus are easily managed. Lacking the right enzymes to digest these foods, I do best just avoiding them, but I’ve also found some workarounds.

Goat milk, for instance, is much easier to digest than cow’s milk because it contains less lactose and its fat molecules are one-fifth the size of those in the bovine beverage. So I only pig out on goat cheese. If someone offers me a tempting slice of their homemade pumpkin bread, I can pop a couple of enzyme pills, which usually do the trick. And even if I unknowingly consume a bite of wheat or dairy, while I might be uncomfortable for the rest of the evening, it won’t send me to the hospital.

Not so for my friend Rachel, who has severe allergies to a host of foods, especially fish and nuts. These extreme allergies run in her family and compel her to carry a self-injecting dose of epinephrine, which might just save her life.

Scientists cannot yet explain the recent rapid growth in the number of people (especially children) who suffer from potentially fatal food allergies. Nearly 15 million Americans have a moderate to severe food allergy. This now includes 1 in every 10 preschoolers, a rate that has more than doubled in the last decade.

These life-threatening allergies are a disorder of the immune system, in which the body sees the allergen as a foreign invader and mobilizes its forces to attack by releasing histamine and other powerful chemicals that trigger allergic symptoms, such as nausea, hives, itching, swelling, and shortness of breath.

Even a sharing a kiss with someone who just ate fish is enough to unleash a vicious anaphylactic reaction. Illustration: Lila Volkas

It only takes a tiny bit of the offending food to unleash anaphylaxis which can lead to death in a matter of minutes. Even kissing a person who just snacked on sushi or polished off a PB & J is enough to spark an onset of dire symptoms.

With more children suffering from severe allergies, their parents try to cope by taking full control of everything their children put in their mouths–a daunting task. But recent news of a new therapy has shown promising results in desensitizing even those with multiple allergies.

When my friend Rachel was in her twenties and had a battery of allergy tests, her doctor noticed obvious positive results for allergies to many fish, but didn’t see a reaction to salmon and so recommended that she cautiously experiment with it. The next time Rachel and her husband went out to dinner, he ordered the grilled salmon and she dipped her fork into a drop of salmon juice run-off, but the minute it hit her tongue, Rachel immediately felt a tell-tale itching sensation on her lips. Her husband rushed her to the hospital and she made it just as her throat was dangerously starting to swell.

Now, Rachel picks her restaurants carefully (avoiding fish-forward cuisines like Japanese or even Thai, where fish sauce is a common ingredient although it’s not always listed on the menu). She informs waiters and friends that she cannot have any nuts or fish or even anything that came in contact with these foods.

“Sometimes people just don’t understand the severity of this condition,“ Rachel tells me. “Last summer, I was invited to a friend’s barbeque and although he assured me he would be preparing chicken and burgers, when I arrived I saw a plate of fish sitting by the grill. I was horrified. My friend had good intentions, but didn’t understand that cooking my chicken next to his fish could cause an allergic reaction. In the end, to my immense relief, he decided not to cook any fish that night.”

For those with celiac disease, gluten acts like an alien invader and tramples the villi in their small intestines. Illustration: Lila Volkas

Celiac disease is another autoimmune disorder, but one that targets the small intestines. Gluten destroys the villi, which are fingerlike projections lining the small intestines, where the vitamins and nutrients from the foods we eat are supposed to get absorbed. Continued exposure to gluten often wreaks havoc on the entire body.

My friend Tara only discovered she had celiac in her mid-30s, after a lifetime of assorted complaints (skin problems, arthritis and digestive issues). After a few months on a trip in India, (with its rice-based diet), her symptoms inexplicably improved. But when she returned to California, they worsened. A clever doctor made the connection and the diagnosis.

“Twenty-five years ago, there weren’t many resources for those who have to eat gluten-free,” says Tara, “but thankfully now there is so much more awareness, gluten-free products even restaurants with gluten-free menus. “And Mariposa Bakery in Oakland,” adds Tara smiling, thinking about their cupcakes. Tara has become an expert gluten-free baker herself so that she does not have to feel deprived.

For both my friends Tara and Rachel, getting invited over to someone’s house for dinner necessitates preparation and backup plans. They let their hosts know their dietary restrictions and often offer to bring a dish to share. If they are going to a large event where it won’t be easy to know for sure what possible allergens are in the food, they may eat something at home first, or bring an emergency back-up snack, just in case.

Like my problem with peppers, some food sensitivities don’t fall neatly into the categories of intolerance or allergy. Take the great cilantro divide. Genetics seems to determine whether we love the fragrant green leaves or find their flavor reminiscent of soap.

And while the focus here is on medical conditions, strongly held personal preferences and practices — from veganism to the Paleo diet — can be just as fervently followed and thus present their own set of hosting hurdles.

ADVICE FOR THE HOST

What are the best ways to deal with this array of possible food proscriptions? It depends on the size of the group you are cooking for. If it’s an intimate dinner for a couple of friends, you can probably make the whole meal conform to their dietary needs and thus be assured of a relaxed evening for everyone. Here are some other strategies if you are coordinating a large potluck or serving a buffet for 100.

TIPS

Ask guests re: dietary restrictions before you plan your menu. If you are unsure of the specifics of their sensitivities, ask clarifying questions.

Keep the labels, boxes and bags of foods you used, so guests with allergies can check them out. Sometimes they will recognize a benign sounding ingredient as potentially harmful.

On a buffet table: a card next to each dish, detailing ingredients will be much appreciated.

Since even a small amount of an allergen can make people sick, avoid cross-contamination of utensils, dishes and cutting surfaces with offending foods.

A “make-your-own” bar for salads, tacos or ice cream sundaes, etc. will allow guests the freedom to include or avoid ingredients.

Provide questionable add-ins in separate bowls, each with its own spoon, to avoid cross-contamination

For a potluck or buffet, set aside a corner of the table for g/f, nut-free, vegan, etc. so these dishes can be grouped together.

Read labels. There may be hidden ingredients that you are not aware of, (e.g., regular soy-sauce contains gluten; while wheat-free tamari does not).

Don’t take it personally, if a friend declines to try your prize-winning ceviche or sculpted marzipan fruits.

]]>http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2013/12/26/dont-poison-the-guests-advice-on-food-allergies-intolerances-and-sensitivities/feed/0how to handle food allergiesNew challenge for hosts: pull off a delicious dinner without knocking off your guests. All illustrations: Lila Volkasgreen peppers burpMany people are sensitive to bell peppers. Illustration: Lila Volkasgoat milk vs cow milkGoat milk is easier to digest than cow milk. Illustration: Lila Volkasfish kissEven a sharing a kiss with someone who just ate fish is enough to unleash an anaphylactic reaction, Illustration: Lila Volkasgluten monster tramples villiLike an alien invader, for those with celiac, gluten tramples the villi in the small intestines. Illustration: Lila Volkasmake you own salad barThoughtful hosting: a make you own salad bar. Illustration: Lila Volkas“Spinning Plates” Documentary Comes to the Bay Area – A Film about Restaurants, Food, Family and Legacyhttp://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2013/11/08/spinning-plates-documentary-comes-to-the-bay-area-a-film-about-restaurants-food-family-and-legacy/
http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2013/11/08/spinning-plates-documentary-comes-to-the-bay-area-a-film-about-restaurants-food-family-and-legacy/#commentsFri, 08 Nov 2013 16:58:05 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/?p=73561Spinning Plates explores themes of food, family and legacy, and there's appearances from Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz, as well as looks behind the scenes for Gabby's in Arizona and Breitbach's in Iowa. Mary Ladd interviews director Joseph Levy about his new film.]]>

Restaurants, food, family and legacy: all are part of Spinning Plates, a new film opening in the Bay Area on Friday, November 8 at Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinemas in San Francisco, and Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley. This documentary explores three different restaurants: Alinea in Chicago run by chef Grant Achatz (with a few good verbal morsels on restaurant life from Thomas Keller—a coupe); Breitbach’s, a 150-year-old family restaurant in Balltown, Iowa that has endured much turmoil only to continue to be the literal living room for a small community; and La Cocina de Gabby, a Tucson, Arizona Mexican restaurant run by a family trying to break even, hold onto their home, and make a better life for their young daughter. Themes around food and dining are explored in able fashion from start to finish onscreen, and viewers will come away with a strengthened sense of why we want to eat together… it is often about wanting to be taken care of at the most basic level.

Filmmaker Joseph Levy is the film’s writer, director, producer and editor who worked on the highly acclaimed short film George Lucas In Love. Levy has also created, written, produced and directed numerous series, pilots and specials for television networks. He produced the independent feature film Last Man Running as well as the reality/documentary series Into The Fire for the Food Network. Bay Area Bites caught up with Levy recently and his comments have been edited for clarity.

Bay Area Bites: What was it like to research this documentary? It has such a personal feel and covers restaurants and themes around family, legacy, passion and survival.Levy: Most of the research happened throughout the course of my life. I looked for three restaurants that were very familiar to me — a fine dining restaurant, a community restaurant, and a small ethnic restaurant struggling to stay open. They’re all types of restaurants I’ve loved and I thought these incredibly different snapshots would allow me to show something greater than any one alone would. Alinea was a choice for the film from the start since I had featured Grant in my first Food Network show, Into The Fire, back in 2003. Breitbach’s was a relatively quick find since they had made news about the fire and the community coming together to rebuild. But Gabby’s was a difficult find that took many eating trips and many hours of searching.

Bay Area Bites: What are some of the different reasons people go out to eat?Levy: Dining experiences can be so different from person to person or meal to meal. Reasons can vary from convenience and necessity on the one end to wanting to have a memorable experience and be entertained on the other. Some meals are an afterthought, some meals are unforgettable, but I think almost all meals out involve an aspect of being nurtured and taken care of.

Bay Area Bites: What are the different reasons folks open and run restaurants—even knowing it means long days, and missing things like weddings and sports games with their own families?Levy: Again, I think the reasons for opening a restaurant are numerous and incredibly varied. In Spinning Plates alone, we show a chef driven to elevate food into art, a family in the business because of a six-generation legacy, and another family who does it to survive and keep the family fed. In all cases, there’s a passion and perseverance evident — it’s never easy.

Bay Area Bites: The economy, illness and foreclosures are shown here—further highlighting the tough reasons for running a restaurant as well as the customers who support it. What are your thoughts on this?Levy: Food shows on TV can sometimes make you think that being a chef is all about balancing restaurants, cookbooks, TV shows and celebrity cooking challenges. There aren’t a lot of stories about people struggling to save their homes and restaurants, or even chefs fighting for their lives. There’s a big difference between a reality show and reality, and when you take a look at the latter, every aspect of life is on the table — even the ones that don’t necessarily make for a good television series.

Bay Area Bites: Charlie Trotter is mentioned — all the more poignant given his passing this week. What do you think Grant Achatz would say about that?Levy: I think Grant would say the same thing I and many others are saying about Charlie Trotter: he was a giant figure in the culinary history of America and paved the way for so many others. He truly leaves behind a legacy that will long be remembered.

Bay Area Bites: The topic of legacy comes up from high-end restaurant folks: Grant Achatz and Thomas Keller, but the other two restaurant families seem to have that in mind as well. How does legacy and family play out in this film?Levy: It’s everything in this film. And it might be a surprise that issues of legacy, family and mortality play out in a movie about restaurants, but that’s a very important aspect of Spinning Plates — food can mean so much and this movie is about people for whom it couldn’t mean more.

Bay Area Bites: What was the biggest surprise for you doing the project?Levy: How moved people are by the film. That, of course, was my hope, but you never know if the emotions you have as a filmmaker towards your subject are shared by others. I think these three stories really resonate with people because they’re tied together by universal threads that are common to us all.

Bay Area Bites: How does the chef as artist and food as art work for Grant Achatz? Do you think that is exclusive to fancier spots?Levy: Grant uses food to convey flavor, aesthetic, story and emotion. It becomes a means of expression. I think it might be more common to find that thoughtfulness and artistry in a high-end restaurant, but I’ve certainly found it in other unexpected places.

Bay Area Bites: Breitbach’s is a phenomenon that is all the more surprising given how small the town is. Why do you think they are able to remain so strong?Levy: Because the restaurant is more than restaurant to the town — it’s a community center and in a way it belongs to the town. When the restaurant was in danger of going away, the town wouldn’t let it die because they felt the town would die with it. It’s really a beautiful relationship.

Bay Area Bites: What’s next for you?Levy: Despite the fact that I’ve been proclaiming for a year that Spinning Plates is my last statement in the world of food, I’m now actually developing a scripted feature (fiction film) that takes place in the food world, but from a very different perspective. I guess I feel there’s still more for me to say.

City College of San Francisco runs the oldest and one of the most respected Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management programs in the United States. Founded in 1936, the program was one of the country’s first culinary schools. The program offers Associate of Science degrees in three areas: Culinary Arts Management, Food Service Management, and Hotel Management. And at $46 per unit, the classes are a bargain—going through the full two-year program will set you back about $2,000, which is one-tenth the cost of a culinary arts certificate from Le Cordon Bleu.

Each year the school sends a steady stream of line cooks, pastry chefs and food service employees into the Bay Area’s workforce. A number of local successful chefs and business owners went through City College’s culinary program.

There are also three pending lawsuits—including one from the San Francisco city attorney’s office—that seek an injunction against the school’s closure.

“I’m really not sure what is going to happen to Career, Technology, and Education programs like Culinary, Radiology, and Nursing,” Tannis Reinhertz, Culinary Arts and Hospitality Department Chair said. “No one knows what their future holds and there’s varying opinions about where the college is headed. There’s not a lot of room for constructive dialogue.”

Mixed messages about the college’s uncertain future has had a direct impact on enrollment. Registration in both credit and noncredit courses is down about 10 percent.

“We are normally an impacted program with a very long, long waitlist. This is this the first time I’ve seen this since I began teaching here in 1993,” she said.

Target enrollment in credit courses each semester is 85 students, but this semester only 73 students enrolled.

“We actually had to call people over the summer and ask them if they were returning to classes,” Reinhertz said. “Normally, we don’t have to do that. There was a greater effort to capture the students we have.

Faculty morale is down, also. “We feel pretty beat up,” she said.

According to a report by the San Francisco Budget and Legislative Analyst’s office, the economic loss to San Francisco would be a staggering $311 million if City College were to close.

The analyst’s office also determined that students would incur higher costs if forced to transfer to private, for-profit two-year programs elsewhere.

Many graduates earn an Associate degree in just two years, walking away with very little debt and numerous job opportunities. They’ve been able to find positions at high-end hotels and restaurants throughout the Bay Area and beyond including Acquerello, the Cliff House, and Gary Danko.

“It’s the best kept secret in San Francisco,” Reinhertz said.“It’s a cost that students can actually pay back. Even for someone making $12 an hour. It’s not beyond anybody’s reach.”

Reinhertz warned the impact on the culinary world would be imminent, especially in relation to internships.

“Students would most likely just drop out. No one does what we do. We have the internships that lead to jobs,” she said.

We asked a few notable alumni in the food world what they think would happen if San Francisco loses City College and the Culinary Arts program.

Sam Mogannam owns BiRite Market on 18th Street in San Francisco and recently opened a second location on Divisadero Street. He’s an alumnus of City College of San Francisco’s culinary department. Photo: Sara Bloomberg

San Francisco native Sam Mogannam doesn’t know where he would be without City College. He attended the culinary program in 1986 upon graduating high school.

“Initially I thought I was gonna be a hotel guy,” he said. “My intent was to go to City for two years and then transfer to Cornell to do the hotel administration program there.”

Mogannam didn’t end up at Cornell, but instead stayed local after he found a job at a diner and discovered he loved to cook.

“I think I would have gone crazy if I was a suit, you know?” he said.

Then he and his brother took over the family grocery business on 18th Street in 1998 with only six employees. Now he has 285 employees across three stores, including the new market on Divisadero Street.

Mogannam is afraid that if the college closes, students would suffer most.

“I know there are just so many kids that get out of the (California) Culinary Academy that have loans that they will probably never be able to pay back if they stay in the food business,” he said. “Or they come out with these expectations that they’re going to become a high-power chef and really don’t have any experience to back it. It’s a challenge for them because they’ve got this pressure of the debt and still don’t have the experience to be able take on a job that will actually help them pay it down.”

Jeff Hanak, owner of Nopa and Nopalito, is a City College of San Francisco alumnus. Photo: Sara Bloomberg

Jeff Hanak, owner of the popular restaurants Nopa and Nopalito, always wanted to go to City College. The price and location were hard to beat. He’d been working in restaurants throughout high school and hoped to see if the culinary department was a “good fit.”

“I always loved working in restaurants,” Hanak said. “I wanted to see if this could be a career for me. City College was reasonably priced and had an excellent reputation.”

He enrolled right out of high school and never looked back. While attending classes, he earned a coveted internship at the Four Seasons Hotel.

“The school has a relationship within the industry. Internships are quite good with hotels and restaurants,” he said. “There’s opportunities for excellent job placements if that’s what you really want to do.”

Hanak still uses his City College training every day. He helped open Nopa in 2006, and Nopalito a year later. The New York Times said it put San Francisco’s north of the Panhandle neighborhood on the map.

“My instructors helped me gain a broad range of skills. Not just culinary, but I learned the art of hospitality. It would be sad to lose City College,” Hanak said.

He fears that if the school shuts down, the reverberations for the restaurant world will be hard to overcome. Bay Area restaurants are large employers of people coming right out of school. Over the years he has employed multiple City College graduates as managers, cooks and servers.

“I think it would be hard to find a pool of quality graduates to choose from,” he said.

He also worries about the students. He believes without City College, there aren’t many other opportunities for aspiring chefs or servers to learn valuable skills at a low price.

“There’s nowhere else in San Francisco for people to go other than for-profit institutions. There’s some pretty expensive private schools out there,” Hanak said.

Martino DiGrande, owner of the Italian Restaurant Palio d’Asti, is an alumnus of City College of San Francisco. Photo: Sara Bloomberg

Martino DiGrande wanted to carry on his fathers’ tradition in the restaurant business. A proud Sicilian, he knew that food was his calling. Like Mogannam and Hanak, he enrolled in City College’s program directly out of high school in 2002.

“The school’s reputation is second to none,” he said. “I talked to people in the industry and they said, ‘Don’t be crazy. Go to City College!”

And so he did. He learned how to cook and meet strict criteria from some of the harshest food critics.

“At City you are cooking for the students. Your food has to be hot. It has to be good” DiGrande said. “We had some of the toughest food critics around. They would let you know if the food wasn’t up to par.”

One of the highlights of the program for DiGrande was the diversity of students in culinary arts. If City College were to close, DiGrande is worried that many students would be completely be shut out from higher education.

“We had a couple guys recently out of prison. We had veterans. You name it. They were all trying to better themselves. I’m afraid those students might be lost in the shuffle,” he said.

Going Forward

Whatever happens over the next ten months, the culinary department is still open, thriving and preparing for the future. Reinhertz is even trying to expand the program for non-chefs, including more daylong courses and maybe even a “couples cooking class.” One thing she wants to make clear.

City College isn’t closed, yet. “We are still here. We are still accredited. Come take a class,” she said.

In fact, the college added several dozen “late start” classes to its fall schedule, including two Culinary Arts classes — “Pantry and Cold Kitchen” and “Chocolate and Confections.”

Disclosure: Both Gina Scialabba and Sara Bloomberg take classes at City College of San Francisco. Ms. Scialabba has periodically taken courses for both professional and personal growth since Spring 2011. Ms. Bloomberg has taken courses since Fall 2011 and is working towards a journalism certificate. Neither have taken a culinary arts class.

]]>http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2013/11/06/san-franciscos-culinary-scene-is-ripe-with-talent-from-city-college/feed/0CCSF_Culinary_14oct2013_106_webStudents prepare for lunch service at The Educated Palate, a full service restaurant run by the City College of San Francisco Culinary department. Photo: Sara BloombergCCSF_Culinary_14oct2013_073_webCulinary students at City College of San Francisco prepare fruit tarts at the Downtown campus. Photo: Sara BloombergCCSF_Culinary_14oct2013_390_webCity College of San Francisco student Yan N. waits on guests at The Educated Palate, the school's full service restaurant at its Downtown center. Photo: Sara BloombergSamMogannam_16oct2013_0004_webSam Mogannam owns BiRite Market on 18th Street in San Francisco and recently opened a second location on Divisadero Street. He's an alumnus of City College of San Francisco's culinary department. Photo: Sara BloombergJeffHannak_9oct2013_0017_webJeff Hanak, owner of Nopa and Nopalito, is a City College of San Francisco alumnus. Photo: Sara BloombergDSC_1346_0101_webMartino DiGrande, owner of the Italian Restaurant Palio d'Asti, is an alumnus of City College of San Francisco. Photo: Sara BloombergOld Weang Ping Village: Not a Business, a Sanctuary.http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2013/08/02/old-weang-ping-village-not-a-business-a-sanctuary/
http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2013/08/02/old-weang-ping-village-not-a-business-a-sanctuary/#commentsFri, 02 Aug 2013 16:48:51 +0000http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/?p=67221Old Weang Ping has been opened since 1983. Photo: Lauren Benichou

If you’ve lived in Oakland long enough, you’ve probably heard about Old Weang Ping Village, the worst kept secret in town. Located in a residential neighborhood of East Oakland, right behind Mills College, this little shack-like restaurant offers some of the best Thai food I’ve ever eaten. But after 30 years of running this little gem, owners Pat and Jook Sawanwatana are finally retiring. Does this mean the end of Old Weang Ping? Certainly not.

You can’t miss the place. Look for the “Country Cooking” sign over the thatched roof. Photo: Lauren Benichou

Pat moved from Thailand to Oakland in the 1970s. He attended Lincoln University and got his B.A. in Political Science. After that, Pat took on a bunch of jobs until he decided it was time to do something new.

“Nobody was going to open a restaurant here,” Pat said. “I am the type of person who wants to do what nobody wants to do.”

The entrance at Old Weang Ping is covered in vegetation, Buddhist symbols and twinkle lights. Photo: Lauren Benichou

The Sawanwatanas opened the restaurant in 1983. But this investment was not about making a profit Pat told me.

“It’s not only a restaurant,” he said. “it’s promoting the community and providing a place to eat.”

And you know he means it. The most expensive dish on the menu, including the specials, is $7.75. Pat never tried to promote the restaurant. He actually said that the busiest time he had in the last 30 years was after he registered the restaurant on Yelp.

Pat Sawanwatana is the owner of Old Weang Ping. Photo: Lauren Benichou

“It’s not a business, it’s a sanctuary,” he said.

Pat was born a Buddhist. While that aspect of his education definitely influenced his views on life, he isn’t the religious type. But his agreeable attitude and his joie de vivre transpire through the homey decor and the comforting food.

Pat decorated the place. The result is this kitschy bamboo decor. Photo: Lauren Benichou

To make sure you can actually enter the restaurant, you should call and let Pat know that you’re coming. It’s good manners and if it’s too full, Pat will let you know! Once in the front, you may have to knock at the door. Pat usually leaves it locked. Inside, a tropical jungle path composed of fake plants and Buddhist decorations leads to the main room, also lusciously decorated with kitschy bamboo walls and twinkle lights. Overall, it feels like your kitschy grandmother’s home.

The unlimited Thai iced tea is on the house. Photo: Lauren Benichou.

The food menu lists the ingredients and it’s up to the hungry customers to combine them in whichever way they desire. Pick the meat or fish, choose the sautéed sauce from a list of eight sauces or simply pick a curry sauce. You may end up with something like this: roasted duck with sweet basil sauce; pad see ew with chicken; bamboo shoot, eggplant and mushroom in green curry with Thai sticky rice. In other words, the combinations are endless. But if you don’t feel like thinking too hard, you can also pick one of the specials. Some of the most popular dishes are the pumpkin curry and the roast coconut and curry prawn with Indian crepes. Oh, and did I mention the free unlimited Thai iced tea?

Every sanctuary needs a miracle-maker and that’s where Jook, Pat’s wife, comes in. I am careful not to use the word “cook” because she truly is a miracle-maker. According to Chris Peterson, the operator and, as of August 1, the new owner, Jook works with three burners, no timer and no measuring tools and she works alone.

“She is amazing,” Peterson said. “It’s incredible how quickly she does everything. It’s all accurate, fluid and always great.”

Chris Peterson is officially the new owner of Old Weang Ping as of August 1st, 2013. Photo: Lauren Benichou

The fact that the restaurant has had a following for nearly 30 years, that Pat is an incredible man who built his own cabin in the woods and that Jook sometimes cooks for over 30 people by herself, Peterson feels like taking over the restaurant while retaining its authenticity might be daunting. But he is willing to try his best.

“Both of them are wizards,” Peterson said. “But this place is going to stay the way it is. It’s about balance.”

Peterson met Pat through a friend and they immediately bonded.

“I came in every Wednesday for 10 years,” Peterson said.” I also came for birthdays and special events.”

Pat says “it’s all about balance.” Photo: Lauren Benichou

Pat and Jook had been trying to retire for years and they failed to find anyone to keep the “balance” that they worked so hard on maintaining. One day, Pat mentioned his retirement to Peterson.

“I didn’t think he was asking anything of me,” Peterson said. “Then our common friends told me that Pat would never ask directly but it was his way to ask.”

Peterson hasn’t work in a restaurant since he was 23 and he was, until recently, an elementary school teacher.

“I decided to call up Pat and I said hey, is this crazy? Should I be the one taking over? Pat proceeded to tell me all the horrible things that happen when you run a restaurant and then I said yes.”

Peterson gave notice to his old job in April and started training with Jook.

“If I mess up, Jook pushes me out of the way laughing,” he says. “That’s how I am learning right now.”

Don’t forget to lock the door behind you. Photo: Lauren Benichou

Peterson says that he has put out many dishes already and that people finds them excellent. They can’t see the difference.

So faithful followers of Old Weong Ping, don’t you fret! Pat seems to have chosen the right guy to take over the enterprise and maintain the restaurant as the peaceful sanctuary that it is.

In today’s New York Times food section Jeff Gordinier checks in with local Edible Excursions owner Lisa Rogovin about what to look for when choosing a food tour here or abroad. Rogovin spent seven years in sales with Gourmet magazine before launching her own food tour company in 2004. She’s been pounding the pavement introducing guests to restaurants, cafes, and food producers in San Francisco, the East Bay, and Marin for the past nine years. Currently, a dozen guides lead 25-40 intimate food forays a month that showcase culinary picks in the city’s Ferry Building, Mission District, and Japantown, as well as Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto and Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood.

Rogovin, 43, lives with her husband and two children in Glen Park. She spoke with BAB’s Sarah Henry about what her job entails and why there’s such a demand for food tours. (Full disclosure: Henry met Rogovin three years ago, when she interviewed her for a story. For the past two years she’s led East Bay jaunts for Edible Excursions and curated the latest tour Temescal Tastes.)

The edible entrepreneur shares some of her favorite local dining destinations, chimes in on what she thinks of terms like “foodie,” and offers a sneak peek into her new tours. Cocktails anyone?

I lead private and Japantown tours. Last week I lead a group of Genentech employees through the Ferry Building and a Contiki group through the Mission. I spent most of Wednesday scouting locations for an upcoming Oakland tour, followed by drinks with girlfriends at B-Side BBQ, owned by my friend Tanya Holland. We took Tanya to Duende in Uptown for dinner. I recommend the arroz negro. I had business meetings at Slanted Door twice last week and two meals at Contigo. From around six in the morning to about 11 at night I’m continually fielding questions and requests from my tour coordinator, guides, and guests. I make a point of staying connected with my existing food partners, building and maintaining those relationships and making sure things are working for them in relation to our tours. There’s also website updating and social media to do. Last week I also worked on proposals for potential tours, one for next year’s Fancy Food Show, one for a Google group, and another for a delegation of dentists from Korea coming to San Francisco for a convention. I met with UC Berkeley contacts about offering tours to different departments there and I interviewed a potential new guide. I go over scheduling, invoicing, and other administrative stuff like handling fundraising requests with my operations manager.

My husband and I celebrated the eighth anniversary of our meeting with dinner at Firefly and dessert at The Ice Cream Bar in Cole Valley (malted milkshake and brownie sundae.) I’m a mom, so there’s the care, feeding, and transporting of children too. It’s important to me that we have family meals together. That’s how childhood memories are made. We took the kids to Sunday Streets in the Mission and had lunch at Mission Picnic. I try to exercise five times a week—running, Zumba, working out with a personal trainer–it’s necessary in this job to burn calories. I exercise to eat.

I eat at restaurants about seven times a week. Eating out is my sport of choice. I love variety so I enjoy both hole-in-the-walls such as Basa Seafood for clam chowder or El Farolito for al pastor tacos. I like neighborhood joints like Dosa as much if not more than sleek and trendy spots. I’m not really into the three-hour, high-end dining experiences like I used to do at Gourmet. I’m just not into the pomp and circumstance. There was a time when I went to places like Coi or Quince for dinners three times a week but now I choose simpler dining experiences. I did have an impressive meal recently at Sons & Daughters. They’re crazy talented and creative in the kitchen. I ate Fort Bragg sea urchin with Delta asparagus. My most memorable meal lately was at State Bird Provisions. The dining experience is executed in a unique way I found exciting. The menu changes all night long: What’s available at 6 may not be available at 9. We had a smoked sturgeon pancake with horseradish schmear that was delicious.

What kind of home cook are you and what’s your go-to family dinner?

Cooking at home has changed drastically since my little ones (Livia, 2 and Matthew, 4) came along. Popping corn for my kids is considered cooking these days. I enjoy cooking but I have five minutes max of uninterrupted kitchen time. Now I cook about once a week when a recipe I read inspires me. I love Bon Appetit since Adam Rapoport came on as editor-in-chief. I just bought ingredients for Corn Maque Choux from the July issue. I hope I find time to make the dish or else I’ll throw the corn and some protein on the grill. We just started having a personal chef, Joshua Clever, who also happens to be one of my guides, come to our house twice a month and he cooks entrees and sides and fixes salads. My husband and I love salads: Micro greens, arugula, toasted nuts, dried or fresh seasonal fruit and some Israeli feta or blue or shaved aged goat.

What do you think of the terms “foodie” and “gourmet” and do these labels describe you?

Gourmet feels stodgy. Old school. Foodie is ubiquitous these days. What does that word even mean? I don’t spend a moment thinking about these words. Maybe “food obsessed” is a better label for me.

Ex-Edible Excursions guide Preeti Mistry of Juhu Beach Club opened a restaurant in Oakland instead of San Francisco. Photo: Naomi Fiss

How has the culinary landscape evolved in the nine years you’ve lead food tours?

There’s been great food in the Bay Area for decades, thanks to the California Cuisine movement a la Chez Panisse and its many disciples. But I think there’s lots more of it now and it has spread way beyond Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto and San Francisco’s Ferry Building.

Did you coin the term “epicurean concierge” and what does it mean to you?

When I worked for Gourmet a colleague who worked for Vanity Fair thought I should call myself an “epicurean concierge.” I love the title. You turn to a hotel concierge to find out about a region and what to do. Guests can turn to Edible Excursions guides to learn about the food scene here. That’s one of the cool things about having your own business. You can call yourself whatever you want.

Why do you think there’s so much interest now in the Bay Area in what we eat?

Bay Area people have been focused on what they eat for decades. In part, it has to do with our access to high quality ingredients year round growing within close proximity to the public. In recent years, the number of farmers’ markets have grown so you can find a market six days a week. People aren’t waiting for Saturday to head to the Ferry Plaza they’re going to the Fillmore, Castro, Civic Center, Noe Valley and Glen Park.

Food TV, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Meetup and a slew of other social media have put a magnifying glass over what and where people eat. I get it. I love to look at food. I follow Chris Cosentino of Incanto on Instagram to see what dishes he’s prepared for his menu. He can make something like offal, which may not initially sound appealing, come to life with Gravenstein apples and toasted walnuts. I grew up with a dad who loved to take pictures of food. One of my favorite photos from my childhood is a plate of perfectly charred steak at Peter Lugar’s in Brooklyn.

The kouign amann from Brian Wood of Starter Bakery has quite the cult following in the East Bay. Photo: Naomi Fiss

What do you want guests to take away from a food tour?

People get so much more than food on an Edible Excursion tour. They also glean insights and information about the people making or growing the food, regional history, and local culture. Hopefully, that experience will help shape the way people shop for food or select a restaurant.

Who takes your tours?

Family, friends, and coworkers. Lawyers, builders, doctors, retired grandmas, finance people, high-school sweethearts, activists, and moms who met when their kids were in preschool but are now in college or married with kids of their own. We offer sign-language tours to the deaf community too. Some guests are just there to take it all in. Others think they are the world’s foremost authorities about everything and want to share their knowledge with the rest of the group. As their guides, it’s our job to manage the more challenging personalities so they’re not interfering with other guests’ experiences. Another typical personality we come across is someone who just can’t get enough info and fires off question after question. It’s great to have engaged customers but we’re on a tight timeline so we know how to move things along gently so as not to offend or dismiss anyone.

A genuine desire to educate guests about the local food scene and the surrounding community. A great anticipator: A person who has a calm and collected demeanor in the face of disaster and difficult personalities who can adapt depending on the group, weather, or what’s going on for our partner businesses. Someone who can build a strong rapport with guests and merchants. There’s definitely a performance aspect to it: A guide needs to be on for three hours, even when most peoples’ attention spans wane around the 30 minute mark. That’s why we keep things moving.

What’s next for Edible Excursions?

New tours, in no particular order: A San Francisco Cocktail Tour: The drinks menu has become an increasingly creative place and we want to spotlight the bartenders who are crafting these specialty sips. And, maybe because I’m a mom, I really look forward to a cocktail at the end of the day. More Oakland tours, in Uptown, Old Oakland, and beyond because the food scene there is exploding. There’s incredible local pride along with a lot of chefs who might have opened in San Francisco who are heading to Oakland instead. It’s perhaps the most exciting and talked about food scene locally. And Dogpatch in the city, because it’s a hidden gem yet to get the attention it deserves.

I also want to offer culinary excursions for young families. So many kids are picky eaters and I think if they’re given a fun way to explore other foods and flavors they might buy into it. Kids who are picky are more likely to try new things if the idea doesn’t originate from their parents. Food tours are a great thing to do with terrible teens too; food really does help break down barriers and connect people.

If you could choose ahead, what would your Last Supper look like?

I could see going out with a smile after eating a Reuben sandwich from Stag’s Lunchette. But I’d need some clean greens on the side for a balance so maybe steamed broccoli rabe too. Oh, and a tequila cocktail to round out the mix.

While the craft beer movement continues to rake in more fans willing to spend their hard-earned green on the finer beers in life, San Francisco-based Brewmaster Dave McLean remains a key figure to watch. Ever since he opened Magnolia Gastropub and Brewery in the Haight in 1997, the spot has increasingly been a draw for those seeking Kalifornia Kolsch and Big Cypress Brown and cask-conditioned beer (Blue Bell Bitter, Spud’s Boy IPA). There’s also food with a local bent that covers favorites like Scotch eggs and a decadent Prather Ranch burger. McLean, who is on the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Brewers Guild, told us that even today, people are still shocked that the restaurant also houses a working brewery in the basement. He is close to opening a bigger, better, new brewery with BBQ offerings from the folks from Namu… across town, in the morphing Dogpatch neighborhood. McClean also owns The Alembic, which dishes up craft cocktails and bites right down the lane from Magnolia. We caught up in person recently to find out more about the new Dogpatch space and McLean’s career. His comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Quail Scotch eggs

Bay Area Bites: Tell us about the new Magnolia Dogpatch brewery.

McLean: The whole move to go over there was basically driven by us not having enough beer production capacity here. We were already maxed out with continually growing the business and have a nice wholesale draft business. We were looking at the whole place craft beer has gotten to and it makes sense to grow in a more robust way.

We built Magnolia Brewery 15 years ago and it’s really a finite space—we can’t add another tank or vessel downstairs. We created a way to grow our business as well as grow our packaging and bottling. To give the amount of energy and attention needed to do this, I have broken things up into phase one and phase two.

We will open in the Dogpatch in very late June or early July. There are a lot of moving parts because we are also building a full service restaurant over there. With expanding, there’s always the fear of losing the thing you do well that makes you special. We want to focus on a few initial steps that are logical and get the brewery up and running and get the beer to taste the way we want it, which is no small task. For us, bigger and better things means doing packaged beer outside of the Bay Area and bigger distribution.

Magnolia’s Prather Ranch cheeseburger

Bay Area Bites: How did you decide to work with the Namu Gaji folks, who will do the restaurant portion of the brewery?

McLean: I think that honestly evolved organically out of mutual admiration. I’ve long been a huge fan of what they do since the Namu in Balboa opened. I love going there. They have amazing sake and I drink the beer we make there. They’ve been semi-regulars to Magnolia and Alembic, too.

Bay Area Bites: How will the Dogpatch brewery be similar and different to your other places?

Magnolia’s kegs

McLean: Nobody sees the brewery here because it’s tucked in the basement. Fifteen years later people still express shock that there is a brewery down there. With the new spot, people may think, “Hey, there’s a relatively large brewery here.” We’re not putting the brewery behind glass because that style doesn’t really appeal to me. Customers will certainly be exposed to this idea that you’re in a beer production facility.

In terms of the restaurant itself, the extended Magnolia family has grown and evolved. The everyday customer is most familiar with the relationships we have: Prather Ranch and Arnold Sutton. That’s what you taste when you eat and drink here. I think people understand who our extended family is.

There’s also the family of craftsman and artisans who have been creating with us. At the new place that will make for a similar look and feel. If it’s similar, it’s because we have some of the same people and we can almost finish each others sentences. The flip side of that is it’s an industrial space in a very different neighborhood across town. We’re very sensitive to not produce the “Haight Alembic Magnolia experience.” The only truly identical thread is the beer.

Bay Area Bites: What’s it like working with the City on the Dogpatch build out?

McLean: Everyone likes to complain about the city and I feel like I could. The most enthusiastic people we’ve seen are the Dogpatch residents and businesses. The neighborhood association was very welcoming and there’s already a sense of community there. It’s great to feel welcome and it really wasn’t an easy process to go through. Small artisan manufacturing is the kind of business the city wants to cultivate on the 3rd Street corridor. Some people in planning and the Mayor’s office of economic development are focused on the health of the neighborhood and that was kind of great. The planning and building department process can be convoluted and it definitely added a lot of time and cost to the project. No one can just make that go away.

Bay Area Bites: What beer are you brewing now that is more experimental? Where do your ideas come from?

McLean: I’m currently working on a potential family of beers from the same starting point using wooden barrels. The beer is blended with an unaged version of itself. Since I’ve got elements of time and space, I can stack in the new space and let the beers sit and do their thing.

We work with a farmer in England. Each year we started out trying one ton of malt which sounds like a lot but it got us through four or five batches of beer. This year since we had the space we can get malt and have it at Dogpatch and then bring it over here and use as needed. We have room to play around with it.

Inspiration comes from everywhere. There’s a general receptivity about ideas that strike you at time–in conversations with colleagues. Collaboration is the nature of our industry. We talk a lot online and in person. That fosters an environment. An idea can come from any time if you’re being open to it. Research is not the norm anymore, but it was at the beginning of my career.

Magnolia Lunch scene

Bay Area Bites: Where do you think we are with craft beer production and appreciation in the Bay Area and nationally?

McLean: In both cases it’s at an all time high. I don’t know if my peers 15-20 years ago were setting out to change the American beer industry. The American beer culture has changed. The share of the market that is craft beer is higher than people ever thought possible.

Just like the food movement, people are showing that they prefer to identify with things made in their back yard by people they know. Those same hallmarks are showing up in the craft beer world. Not that long ago that you had to go to a craft beer pub but now you can’t open a restaurant without a decent craft beer component. I would expect it for the Bay Area because this is the cradle of the craft beer movement. One could argue that only recently the Bay Area is realizing its potential for the craft beer community.

The rest of the country is definitely catching up. There are more interesting statistics –a vast majority of Americans live within ten miles of a craft brewery. That was a surprise.

Bay Area Bites: Tell us about your career and goals.

McLean: The nature of this craft beer movement at magnolia is that what’s possible continues to expand and that bucket gets bigger. It allows for this constant assessment and reformulation of vision.

In the beginning I was a 26 year-old home brewer. At that point the goal was surviving and not going out of business. The industry grew and we started making more beer. I got involved in events and had a history with people, which is important to add that to my vision.

This next growth spurt is a new level of visioning of what to do with the beer. I don’t want to characterize things as doing it by the seat of our pants because there is strategic thinking involved. Yet some of the charm of what makes it fun to come to work is figuring out, “Where are we going with this?”

It’s not all been a super easy or rosy path to get here and I have made dumb mistakes. Thinking as a brewer that it is easy to run a restaurant was almost catastrophic mistake Number One. I hired friends, and we spent a lot of time nearly failing. Now I’d like to pivot off the trial and error period that’s lasted ten to fifteen years and make something that’s built to last.

Now that I’m in my forties, I think about the fact that there are breweries that outlive their founders. So it’s coming up with a succession plan. We’re going to grow the business and grow the brand. I’d like it to be such a great place to work that we keep folks for a long time. There’s a natural maturation when you manage and operate something that leaves a good mark. Being a bit bigger gives you more freedom and flexibility to create a better work place that’s more sustainable in all ways, not just in ingredient sourcing. I try to live up to that.

Bay Area Bites: What are your favorite local joints for beer and food?

McLean: We have such a community of people approaching their craft in the same way. When you go out, it’s “who do you want to check in on and see what they’re up to?” I subconsciously landed myself at the nexus of cocktails, craft beer and food.

I love the Ferry Building. My wife and I love Nopa and our whole family loves the quesadilla roja con chicharon at Nopalito. I admire and look to Nopa and Nopalito to see how they do it – the folks there are kindred spirits.

Similarly, running into Bi-Rite Market’s Sam Mogannam at events always feels like I’m with a long lost cousin or brother.

Zuni is a familiar comfort spot. At the off peak times, it’s better and feels like an awesome San Francisco thing. That inspires me. I love that you can be hungry at three in the afternoon and find a place that’s doing killer drinks and food.

Check out the full list of award finalists and the grand list of winners. While the awards ceremony stretched out over a few hours and was oddly lacking any form of culinary nourishment (there were definite rumblings after the ceremony about that), it offered quirks, songs and even a few dick jokes courtesy of Libbie Summers, whose Salted and Styled blog won for Best Culinary Blog. On the other end of the spectrum, the evening kicked off with all guests looking up and saying “thank you” as a dedication to publisher Peter Workman, who passed away just this week. It was also emotional for Lifetime Achievement Award winner Alice Waters, who gratefully accepted her prize and joked in her speech that while she cannot farm, “I am a picker,” which got the audience laughing–wise words from the founder of Chez Panisse and the Edible Schoolyard. Waters also professed her admiration for cooking teachers because: “I cannot teach.” She immediately went on to acknowledge IACP attendee and stalwart Darina Allen, whose Ballymaloe cooking school she visits every year (for her birthday).

When Charles Phan won in the Chefs and Restaurants cookbook category for his “Vietnamese Home Cooking” (co-authored with Tasting Table Senior Editor Jessica Battilana), he confessed that he did not have a speech but had enjoyed some bourbon to presumably get warmed up. Phan thanked Battilana, his agent and wife, Angkana. “My wife made sure I turned the book manuscript in, so I wouldn’t have to return the book advance money to Ten Speed Press.”

Culinary Tour Operator of the Year went to Copita chef Joanne Weir, who shared that as a child, she told her father that she wanted to be a bus driver, so that she could drive a bus on every road in the world. Her confession seemed to scare him a little. Weir dedicated her prize to him because he passed away last year. Food blogger Irvin Lin won the Best in Show prize for his photography, and he asked the IACP crowd to “hire me, I’m available,” a sentiment which was echoed by the next winner.

The conference itself is that rare chance to possibly figure out how to eke out a living doing things in the culinary field–it can be exciting but also daunting in the number of possibilities it presents. There were various declarations for members to support each other and that each one “stands on the shoulders” of those who have come before and after them. That may sound hokey and like general conference speak yet three people we spoke with found these pronouncements to be inspiring.

Many attendees shared with Bay Area Bites that the chance of learning from so many different people doing interesting things is one of the main draws of shelling out $750 to $950 to register for the full conference—that’s on top of the $280 it costs to initially join IACP. Off the record, we were told that IACP is in the midst of something of a revamp and that costs and programming issues have been noted if not yet changed. These folks said that they attend as much for the learning sessions on, say, the meaning of restaurant reviews in the era of Yelp to getting a lowdown on sourdough or video content strategy. The coffee breaks are also highly valued and networking even happens in the bathrooms. Yes, really.

Kale salad and eating local may remain a big trend, but IACP attendees see much, much more at play in the food world. We asked some notable thought leaders to answer a few questions in person:

What is this conference about for you?

The theme of the conference is Dirt to Digital; what does it mean to you?

How does the theme translate to the food industry?

What did you learn about in the workshops and what are the clear trends that emerged from the conference?

Here are insights from Corby Kummer, Danielle Gould, Sandor Katz, Joanne Weir and Sarah Copeland. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Corby Kummer is a senior editor at The Atlantic magazine. Known as “the dean of food writing,” Kummer’s 1990 Atlantic series about coffee is a benchmark for excellence in long-form food writing. He is the author of “The Joy of Coffee,” based on his Atlantic series, and the recently published “The Pleasures of Slow Food.” Kummer is the recipient of three James Beard Journalism Awards, including the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award.

Kummer: This conference is about seeing people who are following food issues on the level of the home cook. It’s about how the things that we in the media are interested in and write about play out in real life and the home of a consumer.

IACP has always been the most connected to the real world of any group because it’s people making their living as culinary professionals. They are in touch with sustainability, farming and local issues. I thought the conference was brilliantly named “Dirt to Digital” because online is where all of the IACP members need to be marketing themselves and their products.

With social media, no one yet knows how to master it but everyone’s trying to learn. IACP has always been at the forefront of practical and real world applications. That’s a unique role because being so smartly focused attracts the most interesting, lively and active people in the food world. And I’ll take any opportunity to connect with them.

Danielle Gould is the Founder and CEO of Food+Tech Connect, a media company and network for innovators transforming the business of food. Through news and analysis, events, and custom research, Gould helps companies of all sizes drive innovation and understand how information and technology are changing the way food is produced, distributed, and consumed. She is also a founding member of the Culinary Institute of America’s Sustainable Business Leadership Council and is a regular contributor to Forbes.

Gould: This is my first time at IACP and they invited me to talk about food and tech trends and hackathons as a model for food innovation. Our panel touched on the opportunity and the medium, as well as how to demystify technology. It is also about helping people understand the knowledge and the challenges that are out there. We’re trying to empower people to put that knowledge out there where they’re collaborating with designers and developers to solve that problem. I travel the whole country and spread the gospel and learn about how people are thinking. It’s about using technology to help solve problems, spread messages and improve business models and just accelerate innovation that’s happening on a small scale.

In the past, a book would take you two years and a product would take 18 months. For a food producer or chef, that means that it takes awhile to market things. Technology offers opportunities: now you can self-publish that cookbook in close to real time, and get feedback on your product.

“Dirt to Digital” is at the heart of what food technology is. You’re looking across the supply chain, and food is interconnected. It is a system, and that goes to the consumer. A lot of times when people think of digital, they think of consumers. Emerging trends and what role technology is for each trend is a part of that. Technology is very broad and means so much to so many different people.

I just love learning how people respond to technology and food and how they use it. The other major takeaway was a lot of the panels weren’t very popular or not as sexy but were about funding. Everyone’s having trouble making money in the food space.

Sandor Ellix Katz, “one of the unlikely rock stars of the American food scene” according to The New York Times, is a self-taught fermentation experimentalist. His books “The Art of Fermentation” and “Wild Fermentation,” and the fermentation workshops he has taught across North America and beyond, have helped to catalyze a broad revival of the fermentation arts.

Katz: I’ve never been to IACP before. I don’t think of myself as a culinary professional. The work that I do is demystifying and sharing skills with people who aren’t necessarily culinary professionals. The highlight for me has been to meet people whose books are influential. [Katz was sitting with Bruce Aidells when we caught up with him and Aidells shared the table with us while we caught up.]

Aidells: What’s good sauerkraut without good sausages?

Katz: A kraut — quesadilla is my fast food, and I make it with Pepper Jack. That’s one of my standard meals.

The theme of the conference is significant. What does “Dirt to Digital” mean? I was just on this panel that was high tech versus low tech yet I don’t necessarily see things that way. I’m interested in understanding these processes in their simplicity. So that doesn’t mean you can’t use technology to have more control over the processes. It’s very empowering to see how the underlying principles don’t need equipment. If you get involved in sausage making, you can use a funnel for the casing. You can also just be there with you hands, pushing the meat through to the casing.

For cheese, you can buy nice molds, perhaps. There are elegant crocks to make things but you can also do it with a jar that’s already in your pantry. I appreciate the conference and there’s much information spreading by digital means but it may be telling people how to use their hands.

Joanne Weir is a James Beard award-winning cookbook author, cooking teacher, host and executive producer for the award-winning television series Joanne Weir’s Cooking Confidence. She is the chef-owner of Copita, a tequileria and restaurant in Sausalito. The author of 17 cookbooks, including the newly released “Cooking Confidence,” Joanne is the Culinary Editor at Large at Fine Cooking! magazine. She travels and teaches extensively around the world as well as in her studio kitchen.

Weir: This conference was so interesting because I’ve approached it differently as a restaurateur this year. I usually approach it as “I write for magazines” or my cookbooks or how to fill your cooking classes. This time I’m taking in things that are really different. I want to sit in on the reviewing and Yelping session.

I still love to see all the people I know when I come to IACP. And I love that it’s in SF and I get to share Copita–they’re going over by ferry. I did a tour on Saturday and people loved it. I’ve shared in a different way and am still excited about my restaurant.

For me with “Dirt to Digital,” I don’t know if I put the two together. Yet every single thing I do is fresh. I have an organic farm — and my next series is called “Fresh” for TV. I am always interested in digital media. The market has changed and the whole landscape is changing. My hope is it that it goes back to dirt and less digital. Is that so ‘Chez Panisse’ of me? (laughs) I do digital but food is still my passion. Perhaps next year the IACP theme should be “Back to Passion.”

IACP is pretty current on things. What they’ve done this year is now bloggers have been integrated. I left feeling in past years that I had to do so much on my own blog. I’ve always done food that is following my passion and on what brings about major possibilities for me. I attended a book session that talked about book advance spending and how book tours are back and rely on the digital medium.

My trend is always Mexican, and that comes with owning Copita. I saw the trendologist Kara Nielsen here and she said, “You couldn’t be in a more trendy thing, with Mexican food and tequila.”

I do modern Mexican food.

We used to think of Italian red tablecloths and Chianti — yet now Italian food has come a long way. One of the trends here is taking cuisines and elevating and educating around the cuisine. Thomas Keller was talking about that and I have seen that in this conference.

Sarah Copeland is the Food Director at Real Simple and author of “The Newlywed Cookbook: Fresh Ideas and Modern Recipes for Cooking With and For Each Other.” Her book, “Feast” will be published in December this year and she has authored numerous articles and recipes for Real Simple, Saveur, Food & Wine, Health, Martha Stewart Living, Better Homes & Gardens and Food Network Magazine. She has appeared as a guest on The Martha Stewart Show, Good Morning America and ABC News Now.

Copeland: A lot of the conference is about relationships. I see faces from every different facet of my career and have been reconnecting and catching up on what people are doing that is new and exciting. There’s a chance to celebrate successes while hopefully helping a few people too.

On “Dirt to Digital,” one of the most challenging things of this industry from my perspective is that I started in print. That part has changed so dramatically in ten years or even five years. For most food people who are in love with food, it is very tactile how we communicate yet that is changing so much. The dirt part communicates place, smell, and touch, which are all the good things. It includes the agriculture, and the farmer. There are so many layers and it is complex with dirt. That’s how food is to me: we touch humanity and civilization, nutrition and wellness. In the digital sphere, how do you capture that? I think we are all figuring that out.

I did a panel on recipes and copyright for the conference. There were folks from Pillsbury there who were trying to figure out their contest. We also had teachers, bakery owners and bloggers. As Food Director at Real Simple, I have to be savvy and think about those aspects.

On almost every panel I ask, ‘What’s the best panel?’ This year, everyone is focusing on video. I worked at the Food Network — and yet this industry has been print for so long. With Hungry and YouTube and different avenues, it’s just so video-focused. The trailer for my first book is a minute and a half but my next one will probably be half that, to seventy-five seconds. My new book ‘Feast’ from Chronicle Books is coming out in December and I’ve learned a few things that I’ll do differently. I am coming away from the conference with the feeling that there is room for every voice and every talent. If you are generous, they will help you, too.